1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device which forms an alignment mark or guard ring by using part of the uppermost interconnection in a multilevel interconnection and, more particularly, to a semiconductor device which prevents peeling of a low-permittivity film by using a multilevel interconnection.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, the interconnection pitch decreases along with micropatterning of LSIs, and an increase in the capacitance between interconnections inhibits an increase in the operation speed of LSIs. To solve this problem, a process of reducing the capacitance between interconnections by using a film having a low permittivity (to be also referred to as Low-k: relative dielectric constant of 3.0 or less) as an insulating film between multilevel interconnection layers is becoming popular.
In the use of a low-permittivity film as insulating films between multilevel interconnection layers as described above, the insulating film peels off from the corner of the chip upon dicing the wafer because the low-permittivity film is physically weak. Peeling readily occurs between a low-permittivity interlayer dielectric film and a thin barrier film such as an SiCN film.